


A Thousand Silhouettes

by sibley (ferns)



Category: Justice League of America's Vibe (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Aliens, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cisco Ramon Becomes Vibe, Dante has never made a good choice in his life and we know it, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Humor, Not Canon Compliant, Seizures, The multiverse, Trans Male Characters, autistic characters, protective dads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2018-12-31 21:04:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12141102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferns/pseuds/sibley
Summary: J'onn meets a boy who can see the future, Cisco wants to be a hero, Santino just wants everything to go back to normal, and Dante wants to fix his family.It's too bad the world is going to end.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know what you're all thinking: why did you write this? You have so much other stuff to work on! And yeah I do but it's so _nice_ that Cisco and J'onn know each other in pretty much every universe? It's nice and I like it a lot and I decided to play with it. Also, Dante makes a lot of absolutely terrible decisions. Don't... Don't do what he does and hitchhike just to talk to the Justice League. Don't do that.
> 
> This is definitely one of the lighter things I've written but there's talk of underage drinking in this first chapter.

It was pure chance that J’onn was at the Hall of Justice when the commotion started.

He’d just come through a zeta tube after monitor duty on the Watchtower, and was going home to water his plants. Usually, he wouldn’t even bother to become visible, or he would shift himself so he was disguised as one of the staff members so that he wouldn’t draw undue attention to himself.

This time, though, there was something that made him pause.

There was _always_ yelling from the crowd of people outside of the Hall. That was normal. What wasn’t normal was the fact that this time the loudest of them was a teenage boy who couldn’t have been older than seventeen. And he sounded _afraid._

“I want to talk to the Justice League!” He shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth and looking up at the Hall. Judging by the irritated looks on the faces of everybody around him and the sweat on his forehead, he’d been at it for awhile. “It’s a matter of life and death! I’m talking about the _apocalypse_ here!”

Someone pushed him back. “Don’t we all, kid? Wait your turn!”

“It’s _urgent!”_ The kid snapped, shoving them back. “My brother says that the world is gonna end and I believe him! Nobody else will listen to him! I have to talk to the Justice League!”

J’onn knew the possibilities. He knew this could’ve been another teenager trying to get attention. He knew that it could’ve just been a ploy to meet a member of the Justice League. And that’s probably what it was. But… What harm could an untrained teenager do? The boy, at least, believed that what he was saying was the truth. Which meant that it was worth listening to.

“You want to talk to the Justice League?” J’onn said, shifting into visibility in full view of the crowd and sending a ripple of gasps through the mob of bodies as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Talk.”

“How long have you been floating there?” The boy tilted his head. J’onn had to admit, he was impressed with the lack of shock on his face when J’onn had materialized in front of him. The kid shook his head. “That doesn’t matter. My brother can see the future-” Someone next to them groaned and the kid turned on his heel and glared at them. “It’s _true!_ He _can!_ My brother can see the future and he says the world is going to end!”

“Is your brother a superhero?” J’onn asked, alighting on the ground. This… This might have been worth looking into. If he ignored this and it turned out to be something big…

“No, he’s fifteen. He just-sees stuff. And can’t be caught on camera. Blasts things, too, sometimes. So-so he’s like you guys, but he’s not a _hero_ he’s just… He’s just my brother.” The kid shrugged a little bit. “And he _said_ he saw the world end. And I _believe_ him.” He looked up at J’onn pleadingly. “I’ve been calling reporters and none of them will just listen to me they all hang up and Cisco’s _never_ been wrong about this kind of thing before when he sees the future it comes _true._ You _have_ to listen to me-”

“I am listening,” J’onn interrupted. “Can you prove to me that you are telling the truth?"

“Do you really believe me?” The kid asked hopefully.

“I will believe you if you can prove to me that you are telling the truth. Can you bring your brother here tomorrow?” J’onn mentally directed the gazes of everyone looking at him somewhere else. It was _irritating,_ being the center of public attention. He didn’t know how Clark managed to do it with so much grace.

The kid blushed. “Um, no. I kind of… Hitchhiked here. From Detroit. I just got to the Hall this morning.”

“Do your parents know that you are here?” J’onn frowned. He assumed not, if the boy had hitchhiked here instead of being driven by a parent or flown in, but… This might’ve been a runaway situation.

“My dad doesn’t care,” he dismissed. “I mean-he does, he loves me, but he’s more focused on Cisco ‘cause Cisco is the one who has seizures and I guess that kind of gives him a license to care about Cisco more. He probably hasn’t even realized I’m gone. I just-I just needed _someone_ to believe me.”

J’onn thought for a moment. There were zeta tubes in Detroit, getting the kid home would only take a quick zeta jump, and that way he could kill two birds with one stone-get the kid back home to the family that was probably worried about him, and see if he was telling the truth about having a little brother who could see the future.

“Come with me,” J’onn invited. “I will take you home.” He paused. He _could_ just pull the boy’s name out of his head, but… He’d found that that was seen as impolite here on Earth. “What is your name?”

“Dante.” The k-Dante hugged himself. “Are you just, like, saying you’re gonna take me home but you’re actually going to bring me into your headquarters and make me forget that I ever saw your alien face?”

“Why would I want to do that?” J’onn tilted his head. If he hadn’t wanted Dante to see his alien body, he could’ve just shifted into something even more palpable for humans than this already watered-down version of his true form.

“I don’t know! Stranger danger!” Dante’s shoulders slumped. (It wasn’t like he didn’t have mace in his coat pocket anyway.) “...Okay.”

He really was desperate for someone to believe him, J’onn realized. Desperate enough to risk his safety. “Come with me,” he repeated. “There is technology inside of the Hall of Justice that can take us to Detroit.”

It showed how badly Dante wanted someone to believe him that he nodded mutely and followed J’onn back inside of the Hall instead of even thinking about passing up his offer.

“I’ve never actually been in here,” he murmured, looking around. “So _this_ is where you guys have all of your secret meetings and stuff?”

“Not here,” J’onn said elusively. Batman would have his head if he told a civilian about the Watchtower. “Maybe sometime I will take you on a tour.”

Dante huffed before realizing that J’onn was serious. “Wait, for real?”

“You have given me no reason to distrust you so far,” J’onn said mildly. “Do not give me one.”

“Yes sir,” Dante replied jokingly. He was starting to bounce on the balls of his feet like he was getting more and more excited. “Oh, man, I can’t believe you actually _believe_ me, I thought nobody was going to listen and the world was just-was just going to _end_ because nobody wanted to listen a fifteen year old which is _dumb_ and nobody was listening to _me_ either even though I look old enough that some bars let me in even though I’m only seventeen and-”

He froze and looked up at J’onn, who had to suppress a small smile. Odd. It had been a long time since a human he didn’t know had been genuinely able to make him laugh.

“Please don’t tell my dad I told you that,” Dante pleaded. “He’ll _kill_ me if he finds out I’ve been drinking.” He pulled a face and muttered, _“Armando_ would never do that.”

J’onn didn’t ask, just inclined his head slightly as they reached the zeta tubes. “I will not tell him.” He held up a hand to stop Dante’s thanks. “But I would like you to stop. When you are old enough, it is none of my business if you drink or not, but if you do it again I _will_ tell your father.”

It was a mostly empty threat. Unless Dante proved to be telling the truth about having a metahuman for a younger brother (and J’onn couldn’t rule out that being a possibility), it was _highly_ unlikely that J’onn would ever see him again. But teenagers were impressionable.

Dante scowled and didn’t say anything in response. He looked at the zeta tubes. “What the hell _are_ these?”

“Zeta tubes. They will transport us to Detroit.” J’onn murmured his override code too low for Dante to make out, not that he would’ve been able to replicate it anyways. J’onn’s override was unique in that it was in his native tongue. And there for completely unpronounceable to humans.

“Cool.” Dante rocked up on his toes. “Man, Cisco would love these.”

“Is he interested in technology?” J’onn directed Dante to stand inside of the zeta tube.

“Yeah, but he’s kind of had to put it on hold.” Dante pressed his hands up against the wall of the tube. “He’s going to school online because Dad doesn’t want him leaving the house. Going outside regularly makes everything worse for him. But he wants to major in mechanical engineering or something like that. What kind of fifteen year old _knows_ that?”

“Do not touch the walls.” J’onn carefully pulled Dante back a little bit. “Now relax.”

The walls hummed golden, and before everything went yellow and white J’onn saw Dante squeezing his eyes shut.

“You may open your eyes now.” J’onn opened the phone booth they’d both ended up crushed inside and stepped out. He’d compressed himself smaller so that Dante wouldn’t be awkwardly pressed against him.

Dante opened his eyes and lunged for freedom, stepping out and breathing in the Detroit air. “I-I didn’t know it was going to be like _that.”_

“It does take some getting used to.” J’onn looked around. He’d been to Detroit before once or twice, although it had always been because of some kind of catastrophe. It looked different when it wasn’t being destroyed. Less… Wrecked.

“Come on. My house is this way. I think.” Dante looked around. “Man, I’ve never even _been_ to this part of town before.” He walked backward for a second before swearing. “Yeah, I haven’t been to this part of town before because it’s where Tandy hangs out, which means we gotta get moving.”

J’onn allowed himself to slip back into his human disguise, eyes and skin becoming brown instead of red and green respectively and costume and cape turning into a white shirt and jeans with a grey jacket over it. An unobtrusive outfit for an inconspicuous person.

Dante’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. _“Whoa!_ I didn’t know you could do that! I mean-I’ve seen you on TV, you’re one of Cisco’s favorite Justice Leaguers, but I didn’t know you could shapeshift into a _person._ That’s _so cool._ Can you turn into animals, too? What about inanimate objects like rocks and stuff? How do your clothes change, too?”

“Trade secret.” Hal always told him to answer like that. Just this once, he decided to take his friend’s advice. J’onn glanced around. The only person on the street was an old man reading a magazine that covered his face. And a quick scan of his thoughts revealed that all he was thinking about was how cold it was. “When I am in this form, you may call me John.”

“John, huh? Kinda normal. You’re from _Mars,_ why didn’t you name yourself something _cool?”_ Dante crossed his arms and picked up the pace. “Walk faster. Tandy didn’t like Armando, which means he doesn’t like me and Cisco and my dad, either.”

“Armando?” J’onn noticed someone duck back into an open window. “Tandy?”

“Malcolm Tandy. Runs the Skulls. We don’t really run into them that much, but a few years back there was some stuff with another gang, Los Lobos, and Armando got involved even though he wasn’t actually a _part_ of either gang, so now the Skulls all hate our family. Which means that it’s absolutely _fantastic_ that your zeta tubey thing dumped us _here._ My dad is gonna be so mad.” Dante pulled his jacket tighter around himself and ducked his head down.

J’onn noticed that Dante had pointedly not answered his question about who Armando was. He let it go. “I will make sure you arrive at home unharmed.”

“Thanks. We’re almost out of his space, luckily. I don’t think anybody recognizes you, so they’re not gonna cause _that_ much trouble. And _I’m_ certainly not worth their time. They gave me a good enough warning last year.” Dante hesitated. “Which, uh, might mean that they’ll be even more pissed to find me here. I hope not.”

Nobody made any moves to attack them, though, and after they passed a certain street sign Dante relaxed. “I don’t think they noticed us. They’re not all bad, but… I’m supposed to stay out of trouble. My dad’s been pretty tired lately and I don’t want to make things worse for him.”

“Is your father abusive?” J’onn asked. He remembered what Dante had said about his dad probably not even knowing that he was gone.

“What?” Dante blinked at him. “No. He loves us. He’s just-he’s got work, and he’s under a lot of stress, and after Mom left-it’s just-yeah. He’s just _tired._ But he doesn’t hit us or yell at us or anything like that. He just works a lot so he can pay for Cisco’s hospital visits. And _I_ can’t get a job because I’m no good at anything. But… He’s a good dad, or at least he tries to be. Dad’s always supported me n’ Cisco even though we’re not that easy to raise. We love him.”

“I just had to be sure.” J’onn picked up his pace despite not knowing where he was going. Dante scrambled to catch up. “How far are we from your home?”

“Not that far. I could’ve sworn we lived farther from Tandy…” Dante frowned. “Anyway, it’s only a few more minutes. Man, Cisco’s gonna be so excited to meet you. His favorite Leaguer is Wonder Woman but you’re definitely his second favorite. He’s wanted someone to believe him for so long…”

J’onn tilted his head. He hoped that he hadn’t come all this way just for nothing. It wouldn’t be a huge detour, not in the grand scheme of things, but it was time consuming. “If he can prove to me that he is telling the truth, I would be happy to listen.”

They walked in silence. Mostly silence anyway. Dante was loudly kicking a chunk of rocky cement in between his feet and in front of him like a soccer ball.

They stopped in front of a house identical to all the other ones around it. Dante pulled a key out of his pocket and opened the door, running smack into his father who was standing there waiting for him.

“Where have you been?” He demanded. “I’ve been worried sick about you! Cisco said that you went to the _Hall of Justice_ to talk to the Justice League!”

Dante winced. “Hey, Dad.”

“Do you have any idea-” His father noticed J’onn awkwardly standing on his front steps. “Dante, who’s this?”

“This is Mar-I mean, this is John.” Dante hugged himself. “He drove me all the way home and wanted to make sure that I got here safely. Like a responsible adult would.”

Dante’s father stepped aside and Dante slipped into the house, muttering something about going to tell Cisco he was okay. “Come in, John. I’m Santino Ramon. I’m very sorry you had to be responsible for my son. He takes after his mother sometimes.”

“Nice to meet you,” J’onn said politely. “Dante looks like you.”

He did. Their shoulders were exactly the same, they had the same nose, and the same dark brown eyes. Santino huffed. “I don’t know how happy he’ll be to hear that. Here, sit down. Can I get you something to drink? As thanks for bringing my son home?”

“...Water will be fine,” J’onn relented. He didn’t want to leave until he’d met Cisco, and it was only polite to accept. “Will Dante be in trouble?”

“Of course. He’s lucky to be ungrounded before college at this rate.” Santino shook his head as J’onn awkwardly sat down at their kitchen table. He didn’t really know what to do. Human interaction was… Hard. “I know he’s just at a difficult age, and I know things still aren’t back to the way that they were and they probably never will be, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still drive me crazy sometimes. Cisco threw a fit when I tried to call the police, but I was so worried about him. One more minute and I would’ve done it anyway.”

There was a scuffling sound from behind them and J’onn turned around in his chair.

Dante was standing there, wearing something different than he had been before-he’d swapped out his red shirt and blue jacket for a thick grey hoodie that obscured almost his entire body. Beside him was a boy with shorter hair who was a good six inches shorter than Dante was, wearing a dark blue and yellow Michigan Wolverines sweatshirt with the sleeves rolled up.

Dante pointed at J’onn. “See, Cisco? This is the guy I was telling you about. The one who drove me home.”

“Y-you-” Cisco stumbled a little and J’onn stood up as he realized that his nose had started dribbling blood as soon as Cisco had made eye contact with him. “You-you’re not-you’re not _human.”_

 He swayed on his feet and fell forward as J’onn, Dante, and Santino all rushed to catch him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imagine that J'onn is more wobbly with his secret identity because, you know, he can always just make a new one.

“Cisco!” Dante shouted, grabbing onto his brother’s shoulders. “Cisco, it’s-”

“‘M okay,” Cisco slurred, using Dante’s shoulders to pull himself upright. “‘M fine, stop yelling. It hurts.”

J’onn knelt down beside him. “Are you sure you are alright?”

“I-I’ll be okay. It just-it just took me a second to get used to-to get used to the vibrations.” He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. “I’m okay. I’m better. You just feel… _Really_ weird. Like, ‘you make me feel like my brain is coming out my ears’ weird.”

J’onn frowned deeply. “It was never my intention to hurt you.”

“S’fine, really. It-happens with people sometimes. Mostly metahumans. And aliens. One time Superman saved my bus and I couldn’t walk for a week.” Cisco shrugged, still using Dante to hold himself upright. “It’s just-wow. Wow. You’re… You don’t feel like Superman did. You’re easier to get used to.”

“What the hell is going on?” Santino demanded, and J’onn stiffened. He didn’t know if the boys’ father knew about Cisco’s obvious powers (of course he didn’t know about J’onn being from Mars), and if he didn’t… Santino might’ve shared the anti-metahuman sentiment that a great deal of the population seemed to have these days. “How do you know about my son’s powers? If you think I’m going to let you take him away and do some kind of experiment on him-”

...Or not. Perhaps J’onn needed to reevaluate his judgement of Santino Ramon. “Of course not.” He stood up to his full height. “I came here for Cisco’s sake. Dante told me that he had been having visions of the future. About the world ending. I needed to be sure that he was telling the truth.”

“You told a _stranger_ about your brother’s powers?” Santino hissed, giving Dante a harsh look.

“He’s not a bad guy!” Dante argued. He looked at J’onn pleadingly and J’onn sighed.

It seemed that he was going to be breaking even more rules today. Batman was _not_ going to be pleased about this.

He let his eyes glow red and spoke in their minds instead of out loud. _“I am not someone who wishes to hurt your family.”_

Cisco squealed loudly and the other three looked at him. He covered his mouth with one hand, the other one flapping at the wrist next to his head. “You’re the Martian Manhunter!” He started bouncing up and down despite still needing to lean on Dante for support. “You’re _so cool!_ You’re, like, the best member of the Justice League!” Cisco paused. “Except for Wonder Woman, because she’s the best. I once saw her pick up this big rocky guy and throw them into _another_ big rocky guy and it was _so cool_ so she’s my favorite. Sorry.”

“No offense taken,” J’onn replied truthfully. Diana was a formidable opponent in battle, a kind shoulder to lean on when the occasion arose, and a good friend. He was fairly certain that there wasn’t a person on the League who wouldn’t consider her the best member of it, except maybe for Hal. “She is my favorite member of our team as well.”

Cisco beamed so wide his face hurt. “Oh! Oh, wow, you’re really-I gotta-I gotta sit down. I really gotta sit down.” He sat down right there on the floor, dragging Dante down with him. “Oh, wow. Oh man. This is so cool.”

“You’re the Martian Manhunter?” Santino asked warily. “The green alien on the Justice League?”

J’onn nodded. “Yes.”

There was really no point in trying to keep anything a secret from them at this point. J’onn didn’t need a secret identity as much as some of the others, like Batman and Superman, did-all of his loved ones were back on Mars, aside from M’gann, and their Earth identities were separate from each other and couldn’t really be traced to one another. There was nobody except himself that he was putting in danger by telling the Ramon family about who he was.

Cisco was clearly a metahuman, anyway, even if Dante had been lying about him seeing that the world was ending. He’d known that J’onn wasn’t human or even from Earth the minute they’d laid eyes on each other. Something would have to be done about that. Considering how worried Santino had been when J’onn revealed that Dante had told him about Cisco’s abilities, the family was clearly already familiar with the concept of a _secret identity,_ but… It couldn’t hurt to give them a refresher.

And… Since Cisco had abilities-

“Absolutely not,” Santino said firmly. “I am _not_ handing my son over to some crackpot scientist who’ll do experiments on him.”

“STAR Labs’ staff is in no way made up of ‘crackpot scientists’,” J’onn frowned. “They have worked closely with the League in the past, and several years ago their Central City facility served as a training ground for a hundred young speedsters. It’s perfectly safe.”

“And what happened to those speedsters, huh?” Santino crossed his arms. J’onn looked away. Perhaps it hadn’t been the best example to choose. “Exactly. I’m not letting them do-letting them do _whatever it is they do_ to my son.”

“I am sure that people such as Dr. Dorado would not-” J’onn sighed. This was clearly not an argument that he was going to win. And maybe Santino was right. “Fine. But his powers are clearly a danger to himself.”

“Hey,” Cisco piped up angrily, “stop talking about me like I’m not here!” He crossed his arms and stuck out his jaw. “I can hear you. And I agree with Dad. STAR Labs sounds dumb. I went there on a field trip once and it was okay. I liked all the stuff they had on display. But I wouldn’t wanna _live_ there.”

“Nobody will make you do anything you are uncomfortable with,” J’onn assured him. Santino nodded firmly. “If you do not mind me asking, what _are_ your powers?”

“No idea,” Cisco said promptly. He shrugged a little and fiddled with the string on his sweatshirt. “They just… I see things. Like-like the future. And things that have already happened. And stuff that is happening? I think I also see things that happen on other planets, but I’m not sure. And I can’t get caught on camera, that’s a big one. I just turn out like a blur and so does anybody else within a few feet of me. It’s pretty cool but it also means anybody who takes a picture with me in it will know I’m a metahuman. Which is… Less cool.”

Dante nudged him. “Tell him about the blasts.”

Cisco elbowed him back. “I was _getting_ to that, dummy!”

Dante gasped and shoved him again, harder this time, and for a moment they wrestled on the floor before Santino coughed loudly. “Boys! We have a guest!”

They separated, hair ruffled and the bottom of Dante’s hoodie had rolled up while one of Cisco’s socks had somehow disappeared.

“Sorry, Dad,” Dante muttered, scooting away from his little brother.

“Sorry,” Cisco echoed. “So. The blasts. They’re kinda… Translucent? I think they look pretty cool. But I can’t show them to you because Dad doesn’t like it when I use my big powers in the house. ‘Cause I break stuff.”

J’onn nodded slowly. “And… The world ending?”

Cisco took a shaky breath. “L-Lately all I’ve been seeing is… The apocalypse, I guess. It’s hard to explain. I’ll get a vision, and my nose will start bleeding, and then all I can see is fire and smoke and the earth breaking and I can hear people screaming and-and it’s _awful,_ I can’t do anything to help them, I can’t do anything except stand there and _watch them die-”_

He broke off, swallowing down a sob. Dante hugged him. “That’s all he needs to know, alright? You don’t have to tell him anything else if you don’t want to.”

J’onn nodded. “I have heard enough.” He got to his feet. “Cisco, do I have your permission to share what you have seen with the rest of the Justice League?”

“Yeah! I mean-of course you do!” Cisco swallowed. “I don’t want the world to end. Not if there’s something I can do to stop it.”

* * *

“So.” Cisco took a deep breath. “You brought a Justice Leaguer into our house.”

Dante stopped brushing his teeth and looked at him. He was in his pyjamas, which meant a pair of boxers and a navy blue sports bra. Cisco, on the other hand, still wore the same flannel pyjamas patterned with owls that he’d been wearing since he was thirteen. He was too attached to them to stop wearing them even though at this point they were getting to be _way_ too small. “...Yeah?”

“He _believed_ me.” Cisco shook his head. “I just… I wanted for so long for someone to _believe me._ And now they do! Now the world might not end! We might’ve just saved the world! And here we are, in our bathroom, brushing our teeth. I’m sitting on the lid of a toilet. I have a cramp in my hand and there’s toothpaste dripping down your chin. It just feels kinda anticlimactic.”

Dante spit in the sink and washed his toothbrush off. “What did you expect?”

“I don’t know.” Cisco admitted. “Just… I don’t know. I didn’t expect anybody to listen, especially not the Justice League, and _especially-_ especially not an alien with green skin and red eyes who’s coming over for dinner the night after tomorrow.”

“John-I mean Martian Manhunter-I mean… I guess I still do mean John?-is cool,” Dante shrugged. “He… He listened to me, when I told him about you. I think it’ll be nice to have him around, y’know? As long as he doesn’t go poking around inside of _our_ heads, I think we’re good.” He paused. “Why didn’t you mention the portal?”

Cisco flinched a little. “I don’t know. It didn’t seem relevant? It only happened once and I didn’t mean to do it…”

“But you still _made a portal_ leading god knows where,” Dante pointed out. “That’s something you should definitely tell the guy with green skin who can turn into _anything_ who lives on Mars. Or used to live on Mars.”

“I don’t wanna get his hopes up about my powers. He’s probably seen a hundred people just like me with the exact same powers who have seen the exact same catastrophe, right? _Someone_ on the Justice League must be able to see the future. He probably just wanted to know if I was telling the truth so he can add me to their big metahuman database or whatever.” Cisco frowned. “Do you think they have one of those? That’s probably illegal, right?”

“I don’t think they have one of those, and I think you’re pretty unique, Paco.” Dante washed out the inside of the sink. “Be proud of that! Maybe they’ll let you join the Justice League or something.”

“I don’t wanna join the League,” Cisco dismissed. “Not yet, anyway. Being a hero would be nice, though. I wanna help people.” They both knew what that really meant. It meant that Cisco didn’t want anybody else to have to lose a brother. “I want to make the world a better place for people, y’know?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Pretty big dreams for a fifteen year old,” Dante huffed.

“Hey, you were the one who suggested that I join the Justice League.” Cisco leaned back a little and sighed. “I wish Armando was here. He’d love this.”

“I dunno.” Dante swallowed his birth control pill for the night. “Hey, take your meds. Armando always told us that superheroes-and the Justice League-needed to be watched by people like us. To make sure that they didn’t turn on us. I don’t know if he’d be pumped about a superhero who can read minds coming into our house.”

Cisco silently stood up and took his night medication before running a hand through his hair and making a small noise of frustration. “I just… I don’t… I miss him.”

“We all do.” Dante shrugged. He’d tensed up when Cisco brought up Armando. “You think Dad and I don’t think about him every day?”

Cisco caught the bitter anger in his big brother’s voice and scowled a little. “I _know_ you do! It just-it just doesn’t always feel like it, you know?”

“I don’t have to listen to this,” Dante muttered. “It was bad enough earlier when Dad was on my case for trying to _save the world._ ‘Least the whole ‘Martian-in-our-living-room’ thing made him forget to actually ground me.” He yanked the bathroom door open and slammed it shut on the way out. “G’night, Cisco.”

Cisco sat on the floor and hugged his knees. “‘Night, Dante.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains misgendering of offscreen characters and discussions of death. This chapter and the next one are mostly filler, the one after the next gets actually into the plot. Hopefully.

“J’onn. You’re up late.” Batman didn’t turn around as he spoke.

“And  _ you _ are up early,” J’onn responded dryly. Batman huffed and J’onn counted it as a win. “I met a young metahuman today.”

Batman paused in his typing. “Oh?”

“Yes. His name is Cisco Ramon. I assume it is short for Francisco.” J’onn had discovered that people with longer names often went by nicknames, and Cisco seemed like one of those. “He gave me permission to tell the rest of the Justice League about him. He claims to see the future.”

“A lot of people say they can see the future, J’onn.” Batman still hadn’t gone back to typing, which was how J’onn knew that he had captured his attention. “What makes you think that he is telling the truth?”

“I know he is. I almost feel as if I have met him before.” J’onn frowned. “He says that he sees the world being destroyed. And that it will happen soon.”

“Francisco Ramon? Any relation to Armando Ramon?” Batman pursed his lips.

“His older brother, Dante, mentioned the name, but I did not recognize it,” J’onn admitted. “Should I have?”

“Yes. Armando Ramon was the first recorded victim of Darkseid’s pre-invasion two years ago.” Batman narrowed his eyes behind his cowl. “Even though we put a stop to his attack before it could even begin, his parademon army dealt a lot of damage. We went over the list of casualties as a team.”

J’onn closed his eyes and nodded a tiny bit. Yes, that had been where he recognized the name from. “I remember now.”

Batman pulled up what looked like hospital records. “There’s no record of a Francisco related to him, however. ARGUS’s file on him has two younger sisters listed.”

“I may have a hard time with your Earth concept of gender, but I am fairly certain that Cisco was a boy.” J’onn moved closer. "If I was mistaken, I apologize."

Batman clicked around a little more before making a small noise. “There it is. Legally, Dante Ramon changed his name last year, and I assume Francisco is planning on doing the same. ARGUS’s files haven’t updated with the name change, which is… Odd. Waller likes to be precise.”

J’onn crossed his legs and floated in the air just behind his teammate. (With Batman, he could never be sure if they were actually friends or just coworkers, so it was best to be on the safe side.) “I remember how Armando died.” Superman had visited the funeral in costume, just like he had for every other casualty of the parademons. According to him, there hadn’t even been a body for viewing. “Do ARGUS’s files say when Cisco developed his powers?”

“He’s had them since the parademon attack. The cameras at the hospital only picked him up as a blur. He’s vibrating at a different frequency than the rest of us are.” Batman paused for a long time. “They already have contingency plans set in place for him.”

“But he is a  _ child.”  _ J’onn scowled. “A child, and they are already treating him like a criminal.”

“I don’t like it either, J’onn, but he  _ is  _ powerful. It’s the nature of their contingencies that concern me. They involve hurting his family to force him to submit to them. They have an underground prison that they call the Circus at their facility in Detroit-that's where they'll hold him.” Batman stood up. “Keep an eye on the family.”

J’onn watched him leave, still floating. “Where are you going?”

“Does it matter?” Batman didn’t pause. It was time he paid a visit to Amanda Waller.

* * *

“Hey, I got burgers.” Dante jumped the contents of the paper bag he was carrying out onto the table.  _ “‘Thanks, Dante, you’re the best big brother ever!’ _ I know I am. Thanks for saying it out loud instead of making me pretend to be you.”

Cisco unwrapped and took a bite out of the burger on top of the small pile. “Thanks. Dad says he’s working late tonight.”

Dante groaned. “He’s  _ always  _ working late.”

“Not while you were gone. That’s why he’s there right now catching up. I  _ told  _ you not to go.” Cisco spoke around his mouthful. “He stayed home in case you came back. Or in case the police showed up and told us they’d found your body.”

Dante looked away. “I was fine, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah, but you might  _ not  _ have been. You didn’t even call us, Dante! You could’ve let us know you were okay! The only reason why I wouldn’t let Dad call the police is because I didn’t want you to get arrested or for them to tell us you were  _ dead!”  _ Cisco yelled. He dropped his burger.

“It was  _ fine!  _ Everything worked out okay!” Dante slammed one of his hands down on the table, frustrated.

“But what if it  _ wasn’t?  _ I know it worked out okay. We know a  _ Justice Leaguer  _ now! But-but what if-what if it  _ hadn’t  _ worked out okay?” Cisco’s voice cracked. “I saw it. I had three visions while you were gone.” Dante opened his mouth to say something but Cisco kept talking. “Dad doesn’t know about them, and I didn't tell him, because I didn't have any fits. I-I saw three different things and I-you  _ died. _ I saw you die, and then in the second one I saw the police telling us you died, and then in a third one-in a third one-”

He was crying and trying to take large gasping breaths to calm himself down. Dante hugged himself. “Let me guess. I died in that one too?”

“No. No. I mean-maybe, after, I couldn’t watch it, I  _ couldn’t,  _ I couldn’t see you like-like that-like-” Cisco buried his face in his hands. “It was like-with the Skulls, before Tandy stopped them, and I was so  _ worried  _ that that was happening to you and then when you got back I was too busy trying not to have another seizure because you brought a fucki-freaking alien into our house and-” He flapped his hands for a few seconds and Dante didn’t move to stop him. Cisco calmed down a little. “I was scared.”

“I was trying to help you.” Dante looked down. “I just wanted to-you said-”

“I said I wanted someone to listen. You didn’t have to-you don’t even have a driver’s license or a car, Dante. You had to  _ hitchhike.  _ What if someone had killed you? What if someone had done something  _ worse?  _ I saw it. They could’ve. You… You… I just… Dad and I couldn’t take that. Living without you.” Cisco looked hard at the table, burger long since abandoned. “You know that, don’t you? That we love you?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Dante muttered. “Look, just-eat your burger, okay?” Cisco robotically picked it up and took another bite out of it. Dante sighed. “I know you love me, okay? And I know Dad loves me. It’s not like that. I just… I don’t know. I just don’t know. I had to help you save the world, didn’t I? Be a hero and all that?”

“I don’t want you to be a hero. I want you to be  _ alive.”  _ Cisco put the burger down. He wasn’t hungry anymore. “Okay?”

“...Okay.” Dante swallowed down the words stuck in his throat. Words about how  _ Cisco  _ wanted to be a hero, and why didn’t he ask Dante what Dante thought about that. “I get it.”

Outside their house, the ARGUS agent who’d been assigned to them this week made a couple of notes on his tablet.


	4. Chapter 4

“You’re back!” Cisco shouted, throwing himself at J’onn and wrapping his arms around him. J’onn stumbled a little, scarlet eyes widening for a second as he awkwardly patted Cisco on the back. “I thought you weren’t coming until dinner tonight?”

“I… Yes.” He inclined his head slightly. “I spoke to one of my colleagues last night. He did not give me any  _ particularly _ useful advice, although I was not really expecting him to, but I have decided to keep an eye on you for the time being. To protect you. Perhaps to help you hone your powers. And to see if your visions will come to pass..”

He did not say anything about ARGUS and how they had been watching the Ramon family. Perhaps he would share that information with Cisco and Dante’s father later, but not now and not with the boys. They didn’t need to know.

The door to Cisco’s bedroom slammed open and Cisco startled as he automatically jumped in J’onn’s arms, trying to pull himself up higher on the alien’s body.

Santino pointed his weapon of choice, which was an eggbeater, at J’onn. “What the hell is going-oh. It’s just  _ you. _ Use the door next time, it’s there for a reason. I thought you were coming to kill us.”

“I was not sure how welcome I would be if I used it,” J’onn admitted. The human practice of using doors was still confusing and strange. There were a lot of things he didn’t understand. But he could learn. “I will be sure to knock next time.”

Santino lowered his eggbeater as Dante poked his head out from around his father’s shoulders where he was clinging to Santino from behind for safety. “Cisco, you scared the shit-” 

“Language,” Santino reprimanded. “We have a surprise guest.”

“-the crap out of us,” Dante finished, correcting himself quickly. “We thought someone was kidnapping you!”

“I would’ve been fine,” Cisco dismissed. He bumped his forehead into J’onn’s chest. J’onn awkwardly patted his back again, unsure of what else he could do. Human signs of caring were difficult enough with his colleagues, who didn’t usually show that kind of physical affection with him. It was a whole different thing with human  _ children  _ who weren’t technically superheroes. “I can protect myself.”

J’onn felt his frantic fluttering heartbeat against his slow false reptilian one and sighed softly. “If I really was an intruder, I am sure I would be in trouble,” he admitted. Cisco beamed and stuck his tongue out at Dante.  _ “However,  _ that does not mean that you should overestimate yourself. You have no training. An assassin will.”

“I don’t think my fifteen-year-old son needs to worry about  _ assassins,”  _ Santino huffed. “He’s a child, not a-I don’t know, a politician. Someone who gets assassinated.”

Cisco didn’t even seem to be listening to his dad, instead looking at J’onn with stars in his eyes. “I won’t overestimate myself, I promise.”

“Now you’re giving him self-esteem problems.” Santino scowled. J’onn sighed. He just couldn’t win with that man, could he?

“Dad, you’re embarrassing him.” Dante nudged Santino. “He’s trying to impress Martian Manhunter again and you’re making him feel weird about it.”

Cisco blushed. J’onn stepped back, extracting himself from Cisco’s arms. “I am sorry for stopping by with no notice and frightening you,” he apologized. “I will ensure it does not happen again.”

For a moment there was only silence, and J’onn took in the sight of Cisco’s Star Wars pajamas, Dante’s faded boxers and too-big shirt, and Santino’s single sock which matched his blue shirt. Suddenly, he realized that this was not something humans  _ did- _ they did not come over to each others’ dwellings early in the mornings of their Earth days with no notice. They would not be able to telepathically sense his presence. They had thought he was an intruder. He had made a mistake.

J’onn did not have any truly human friends who were not also superheroes. And even then, he was not entirely sure if he could count them as friends. They were people like Batman and his protegé, not normal families like the Ramons. He didn’t have much experience with human beings. When they had said that this was a strange thing, they had meant that this was something they did not want him to do, dancing around it instead of saying that outright.

“Oh dear,” he said softly. Cisco looked up at him, tilting his head. “I am sorry. I will leave now. I am sorry for intruding. I am still learning about the intricacies of human interaction. On Mars, everyone has minds that are an open book, as you say. We understand the thoughts and actions of one another perfectly. I did not mean to intrude and make you all uncomfortable.”

“You can stay!” Cisco protested. He latched onto J’onn’s arm and looked at his dad hopefully. “I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, I just woke up and was talking to my friends, but-Dad was making food, I think that’s what the smoke I could smell was from, and Dante was awake, so it’s not like you woke us up or anything! You could stay for breakfast if you wanted. J’onn could stay for breakfast, right Dad?” Santino looked back and forth between J’onn and his son. Cisco chewed on his lower lip. “Dad, he’s a member of the  _ Justice League!  _ That’s so-you gotta-you can’t just-”

It spoke volumes about how much Santino loved his son that he sighed, set the eggbeater he was still holding down on Cisco’s dresser, and gestured over his shoulder. “I’m making omelets.”

“Let me-” Dante squeezed past his father and sprinted downstairs to try to control the damage, leaving J’onn, Cisco, and Santino standing in awkward silence.

Santino coughed a little and Cisco reluctantly detached from J’onn and followed Dante downstairs to the kitchen. J’onn bows his head slightly to Santino. “I truly am sorry for disturbing you. As I said, I am still learning about human customs and social boundaries. I will leave as soon as I possibly can. And I promise I will try to figure things out. I believe my niece had the correct idea when she watched your Earth ‘sitcoms’ to try to figure out what humans were like. I will conduct more research. I will also watch your family while I am here for signs to follow. I promise, this will not happen again.”

“If you’re looking for a family to watch to help you pretend be a normal human being,” Santino huffed, shaking his head, “you definitely picked the wrong one.” He turned to leave. “Come downstairs when you’re hungry. If you Martians need to eat.”

J’onn watched him go. He hoped that he had not unnecessarily jeopardize his relationship with the Ramon family before he had even managed to have a real discussion with Cisco about his visions. As it stood right now, it was unlikely that he would even be allowed to come back during the allotted time that night, when there had actually been a plan in place for him to come over.

He sighed softly and sank through the floor to go to the kitchen. Perhaps he should try one of these… ‘Omelettes.’

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Malcolm Tandy is a real character and his role in the comics is exactly the same pre-New 52. After that he becomes a villain known as Crowbar and only shows up in one issue (Justice League of America's Vibe #5) because they wanted to reference him, I guess.
> 
> As always, I'm on tumblr @danteramon. Come say hi!


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